Jobs recovery slower for women

Tough news, women of America: The jobs recovery will lag more for you than for men.

Women disproportionately work in schools, office parks and for governments — the places that were thumped relatively late in the downturn and are much more likely to come back when the economy is again running on all cylinders.

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Women in the Workforce

About 81 percent of all elementary and middle school teachers are women, so are 81 percent of social workers, 90 percent of registered nurses and 96 percent of secretaries, according to an analysis released Monday by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a Washington-based think tank.

Government layoffs account for about two-thirds of jobs lost by women since President Barack Obama assumed office, said Heidi Hartmann, president of the institute. The firings began as tax revenues were squeezed, meaning women generally were let go on a delayed timeline when compared with men.

“Education was hit when state budgets took a hit,” Hartmann said. “That would also explain why women’s recovery is slower. They have to wait for the states to get back revenue after the economy improves elsewhere before they can start hiring.”

The recovery has been faster for men, in part, because they were predominantly employed in industries like construction and manufacturing that began layoffs earlier.

Women have recovered about a third of the 2.7 million jobs they lost since the recession started at the end of 2007, based on the March figures released by the Labor Department. Of the 6 million jobs that disappeared for men, 45 percent have returned.

So when Romney claims 92.3 percent of the jobs lost under Obama were held by women, it reflects the fiscal problems confronting state and local governments.

And when Obama discusses increased economic opportunity for women, the playing field — despite decades of educational and workforce gains — still isn’t level.

Larry Mishel, president of the progressive Economic Policy Institute, summarized the situation by lamenting, “Occupational segregation hasn’t changed as much as we might want it to.”

Wall Street POLITICO is a weekly column looking at issues that drive business.

Readers' Comments (6)

Democrats and their war on women/mothers.Clearly Democrats hate women, and as part of the war, the Democrats did not put up enough resistance to the Republicans when the Republicans enacted laws to restrict women's reproductive choices or the bids by Republicans to not pay women the same amount as men for doing the same jobs (Scot Walker in Wisconsin). If Democrats were not waging a war on women, they would never have allowed this things to happen.

More proof that Democrats have a war on women is the fact that job losses since Obama took over have been mainly by women. The only way women can protect themselves from this war that Democrats have decided to wage on them is for them to vote Republican and then blame the Democrats when Republicans screw them over again.

"The choice in this election is between an economy that produces a growing middle class and that gives people a chance to get ahead, and their kids a chance to get ahead, and an economy that continues down the road we’re on". David Axelrod

Obama's own campaign manager confirms that a vote for obama is a vote for economic failure.

The concept of equal pay, for those of you who don't understand such simple ideas, is equal pay for EQUAL work, not equal pay for different work. That would be socialism - and the White House is not, despite all claims to the contrary, a socialist institution.

The glass ceiling has been partially broken, but it's still there and at this point in history men do still hold the majority of well paid jobs.